


Last Bites

by TriplePirouette



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: 50 First Hamburger Dates, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-06
Updated: 2014-09-06
Packaged: 2018-02-16 07:56:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,591
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2261904
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TriplePirouette/pseuds/TriplePirouette
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They’ve had every hamburger on Granny’s menu… twice… and still haven’t finished a date.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Last Bites

**Author's Note:**

> I organized Tumblr's "Fifty First Hamburger Dates" to tide the rumbelle community over during the winter hiatus. Search the tag "50 first hamburger dates" for al 50 amazing stories plus fan art and videos! 
> 
> Original note: I’ve been so reluctant to post this, and I know it’s far later than it ever should been. It’s mostly because I don’t want this to be over. Thank you to everyone who participated. Even though I had to chase a few people down and had to put out some fires, I think this has been,by far, an amazing this. You are all wonderful and fantastic. I can’t wait to do something like this again for next Winter’s Hiatus.

The bell above his head rang lightly, a different key than the one in his shop, but a soft tinkling sound that fit the quiet entry of the library much better. He saw her, back and cascading curls to him as she shelved books. Her shoulders sank as she sighed, her voice drifting back to him. “I’m sorry, but the library’s closed for lunch…”

He smiled at her lighthearted defeat. He’d tried counting, he was sure they’d been interrupted nigh on fifty times now, and it seemed easier to just accept that they wouldn’t make it through a meal.

He was never much one for accepting things as they were, at least not since he became the Dark One. “Oh, well, I’m sure this won’t take very long.” He couldn’t hide the smile in his voice when she turned, light floating back into her eyes. He continued before she could speak, eager to keep up his little game. “You see, I was hoping you could help me find some reference material. A book or two, maybe?”

Belle bit her lip and slowly walked toward him, her eyes sparkling as she caught on and squared her shoulders to play the prim librarian. “And what would the subject be?”

He sighed dramatically, shaking his head. “Oh, I’ve had this terrible problem. You see, there’s this beautiful woman whom I love very much, but recently we’ve been unable to spend any time alone. We’re always interrupted by someone or something.”

Belle nodded gravely, slipping the books from her arms to the desk so she could step closer to him. “That sounds like a terrible problem.”

“Oh it is,” he agreed, nodding. “All my sweetheart wishes to do is have a meal, a simple hamburger, in peace. We’ve tried every burger on Granny’s menu-”

“Twice!” Belle whispered to him with a wink.

He laughed lightly, failing to keep a stern face. “Twice. I’ve tried cooking for her, she’s tried cooking for me…” Rumpelstiltskin trailed off, his eyes drawn to where Belle was nibbling the edge of her lip.

She stepped forward again, finally inching closer until he could feel her warmth despite the space between them, just enough to be slightly more than friendly. “I’m sure you’ve tried places away from the diner and your homes, yes?”

“Oh, dozens,” he whispered. “Parks and tree houses and little cabins in the wood…” He sighed, his pretense lost to emotion bubbling up through his chest. “I fear… I fear I’ve failed her. If we can’t even get through a meal together, how can we have a life together?”

Belle closed the space between them, her fingers reaching up and smoothing over his lapels as her face turned soft when she looked up at him. “You haven’t failed me, Rumpelstiltskin.” A smile tilted at the corner of her lips, just starting to show. “We’ve had many little moments that have shown me you’re trying to be the man I fell in love with, the man from the castle that you showed me when there was no one else around, and-”

The door crashed open, stopping Belle mid-sentence. Rumpelstiltskin whirled around, putting himself between his love and the form that barreled to them through the library’s entryway. “Alright, I’ve had enough of this,” Granny huffed, dropping the sack of take out from the diner on the counter.

Belle peeked over Rumpelstiltskin’s shoulder, eyes wide. “Enough of what, Granny?”

Granny rolled her eyes and set her hands on her hips. “You two are just so damn adorable I might vomit. Trying to get the same date over and done with again and again.” She shook her head, moving around them and surveying the open area of the library, a mission set on her features. “But I’m done with it. I don’t know how you stomach Hamburgers day after day.” She turned, barking at the surprised couple. “You do know I make other things, right?” She shook her head and started moving the furniture, sliding a comfortable chair closer to a desk and then searching out its match.

“Widow Lucas, if you please…” Rumpelstiltskin pulled Belle to his side, less out of fear for the woman and more out of a desire to show her that, once again, she was interrupting. “Whatever you have planned…”

She turned and pointed a finger in his face. “Do you know how much more chop meat I had to order this month? How many more buns? And half of them to waste! I don’t think you’ve ever actually finished a meal together, have you?” She turned away, wandering through the stacks despite their surprised looks as she muttered to herself. “Breakfast burgers and spicy burgers and jack burgers and all those extra pickles right down the drain.” She stuck her head around a bookcase, looking right at them. “I won’t have it!”

She disappeared back through the stacks, her voice floating back to them as Belle looked up at Rumpel, her lips pressed together as she tried to suppress a laugh. “There’s lasagna and pastas and all kinds of sandwiches. Soups! And then the desserts!”

A scratching noise drifted back to them as Granny pushed another cushioned chair out to the front of the library. “I don’t know what makes me sicker, the fact that you two are somehow the most adorable damn couple in this town, or the idea of eating a hamburger a day for over a month and a half.”

She wiped her hands down her dress and looked at the small table for two she’d created. Smiling at them, she reached her hand out. “Give me that bag, will you Belle?”

Belle took it and stepped forward, her eyes drawn tot he table for two. “So, Granny, what exactly have you rearranged my library for?”

“Your date.” She busied herself taking the two containers out, opening then closing them again and setting them out with napkins and plastic cups and a full thermos, not even looking at the two people that had come to stand next to her.

Rumplestiltskin’s free hand fisted in the air. “While this is very… generous, Ms. Lucas-”

She stood, pointing a finger in his face. “Nope. No buts. I’m still on the fence about you, but this girl deserves an uninterrupted date. If you and all your magic powers can’t do that, well, I guess I’m just going to have to do something about it.”

Belle laughed beside him, but stifled her laughter behind a hand at his stricken expression. He wasn’t used to people talking to him like that, she knew, and this was all very unexpected. Granny held Rumpelstiltskin’s gaze until his fist relaxed, opening to the side as he gestured for her to continue, resigned. Belle’s hand grasped his on his cane, a silent show of support for his frustration.

“Now then, if that’s… settled.” Granny stepped aside and gestured to the table. “This is it. The last two hamburgers I will ever make you. After today if you want a hamburger, you’re going to have to make it yourself. No more early mornings at the diner or late evenings or running around on half finished dates that make you both look like kicked puppies.”

She stared at the couple, waiting. When they didn’t move, she pointed at the table again. “Well? Sit!”

Belle happily shrugged and sat herself down, opening the styrofoam box and smiling as she sniffed at the hamburger as her True Love sat across from her. “Thank you, Granny. It’s unexpected, but very appreciated.”

Belle kicked under the table, carefully aiming for the left. Rumpelstiltskin jumped, but quickly recovered. “Yes, Ms. Lucas, very appreciated.”

“Good, because it’s going on your tab,” she said gruffly, her voice an odd contrast to the twinkle in her eye. “Now, Ruby’s guarding the back door, I’ll be guarding the front. You have an hour. If you two can’t finish a hamburger in an hour we have bigger problems than a few unfinished dates.”

Granny turned, leaving the library with a slow spreading smile on her face to Belle’s repeated thank yous. She slipped out the door and pulled her lawn chair over, sitting down in the path of anyone who would want to enter or exit as she pulled out a paperback from the bag next to her.

“Well?” Ruby asked, peaking around the corner of the building.

Granny closed her book and rolled her eyes dramatically. “Already leaving the door unguarded?”

Ruby huffed, exaggerating her look back. “No, I can see it from here and there’s not another person for a good half a mile,” she explained, tapping her nose lightly. “So?”

“If they can’t finish this date,” Granny mused, “we’re all in trouble. He’s only going to mope around like a kicked puppy for so long before he starts turning people into snails.”

Ruby looked concerned for a moment. “So, what do we do then?”

Granny just shook her head, opening her book again. “I don’t think we’ll have to think about that. You really going to let anyone get past you?”

“Well, no, of course not.” Ruby shrugged, her eyes darting back to the back door.

Granny smiled. “And there isn’t anyone who is going to get past me.” She looked around, and satisfied that no one seemed to pay them any attention she looked down at her book. “Now back to your post. First thing tomorrow I’m talking to Charming about whipping that man into shape. I have a diner to run, you know, I’m not a match maker.”  


End file.
